We Took the Train to Trang

Location: Between Surat Thani and Trang

NP: Ferry Corsten - Twice in a Blue Moon

Mood: Anticipating

Woke up at 4:45 after four hours of sleep. Washed, got dressed and packed. Checked out of Queen Hotel at 5:55. Walked to the train station of Surat Thani at 6 AM. Heard that the train was delayed by an hour. Took a seat on the bench in front of Railway Police quarters. Noticed several uniformed officers patrolling the platform.

The pace of life is slower in Asia, they say.

Watched the locals feed a stray dog on the station. Noticed that the loud announcements were in Thai only. Kept bothering officers about incoming trains on platform 1, asking if this was the one I should board.

It wasn't.

Was directed by an officer to a different part of the platform after another loud announcement. "Car Eight", he said and pointed at a bench. Took a seat and waited. After two minutes, the train arrived. Car 8 parked right in front of us. Got on board, found seats 9 and 10 (our seats) and sat at 13 and 14 behind them.

Two western women (backpackers like us) spoke to us from the back of the car: "Uh, sorry. Where are we?" I glanced at them and replied: "Surat Thani." They thanked us, promptly picked up their bags and proceeded out of the train making funny gestures as they passed our seats.

Napped on the trip. It was easy while it rained and the weather was cool, and hard while it was sunny and hot. The constant jungle raced by the window, revealing peaks in the distance.

The signposts on the stations were hard to see or, at times, lacking altogether. There were no announcements within the train. Very hard to tell where you were. I understood how the two western women had almost missed their station. The train was delayed.

The mobile phone helped a little. I'd turned on cell information announcements and could see the name of the cell my phone was connected to. Having studied and worked on the field, I knew mobile phone cells were small and often they used the name of the city and cell numbering as their name, which I could see. Sometimes they were named differently, though, so the information was unreliable. It worked in Thung Song.

A railway officer came by and reconfirmed our destination by saying "Trang?"
"Yes, Trang", we said.
"Two hours", he said. The train was delayed further.

A little before Trang the train stopped abruptly. I asked an Asian man in a green shirt with white stripes where we were. "I think we're near Trang", he said with quite fluent English. "Where are you from?"
"We're from Finland", I replied.
"Oh, very far from home", he said and made a politely surprised face. "I am from Singapore." No wonder his English was so good. I told him we were headed for Singapore after Malaysia.

When the train didn't start moving in a few minutes, I wondered if something had gone wrong. Peering out the window I could see a dark blue car on the track, but it was far away ahead of us by the locomotive. There were a lot of people about. The Singaporean had gone to find out. When he came back he told us a car was stuck on the track.

Later a Thai that spoke English told us there'd been an accident. The train had hit the car. We had hardly felt it - it'd just seemed like a normal though a bit abrupt stop. I didn't know if anyone had gotten hurt.

Watched a local man frighten one of his dogs, weld some pieces of metal together and throw stones at his son or younger brother hiding behind the doorway of their house, smiling. He worked leisurely. The pace of life seemed slower. In 30 minutes we were moving again.

Feeling tired, hungry and dirty, we arrived at Trang railway station and were greeted by a big man with a strange eye (probably glass) telling us to hurry off the train and asking us if we needed a taxi. "Where you going?"

I shook my head and told him we were going to Sri-Trang Hotel. It was located just outside the station. It was a question stopper.

Walked over and took two air-con rooms at the hotel with the friendliest of receptionists for 550 baht per room.